Dwight D. Eisenhower Opens the First Atomic Energy Plant Ca. 1957

In 1949 the Soviet Union tested its first nuclear bomb, thus determining the focus of U.S. nuclear energy research in the 1950s. In 1953 President Dwight D. Eisenhower developed the "Atoms for Peace" program, which aimed to develop peaceful uses for atomic power. Under the direction of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), the first commercial atomic energy plant opened in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, in 1957.